Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread

[Zomg]

Savage Frontier games transfer, at least in the DOS version.

As far as the later GBs,I think the Savage Frontier games are fine, they have the same endless autobattle junk combat as the older games but they pace the loot better (you don't reach a point where you're throwing away powerful loot willy-nilly), the "Fix" and auto-rememorizing spells are implemented (spell rememorizing isn't even in SSB). And the final battle sequence in Gateway is a good chance to let your sperg characters show their potential if you "M"odified their stats and dual classed them etc.

 

[MMXI]

If I remember correctly, all Gold Box sequels released after Secret of the Silver Blades allow for equipment to be imported along with the characters.

 

[Erebus]

Krynn series: I usually play CoK and Dok on the C64 and then start a new game on Amiga or PC DQoK. Do items transfer over to DQoK?

You won't be able to keep the Dragonlance and strength-enhancing items you found in CoK. However, you can keep everything you find in DKoK (which makes DQoK much easier).

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Krynn series: I usually play CoK and Dok on the C64 and then start a new game on Amiga or PC DQoK. Do items transfer over to DQoK?

You won't be able to keep the Dragonlance and strength-enhancing items you found in CoK. However, you can keep everything you find in DKoK (which makes DQoK much easier).

Yes, I remember losing the Dragon Lance, but keeping the all powerful 'girdle of giant strength'...are you sure it was stripped from you?

Just wanted to know whether the Death Knight equipment went over to Dark Queen, as I have yet to play through them on the one system (Champions and Death Knights I have always played on C64, switching over to Amiga version of Dark Queen with a new party, same with the other series bar Matrix Cubed, in which I played on dos).

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Sceptic]

DK equipment all transfers to DQ. Same deal as Silver Blades to POD. IIRC SF also transfers fully. So, if you want transfer in Krynn, you'll have to play through all of them on the same platform.

 

[Fowyr]

I started to type, but you already answered, guys.

 

[Erebus]

Yes, I remember losing the Dragon Lance, but keeping the all powerful 'girdle of giant strength'...are you sure it was stripped from you?

Quite sure, yes. I lost my girdle of giant strength and my gauntlets of ogre power.

Keeping your DKK characters to play DQK is a huge advantage, with one minor exception : you probably don't have many magical arrows (whereas a newly created character gets a good number of them). It can be a bit detrimental, especially against dark wizards (who're protected against non-magical arrows).

 

[Sceptic]

Just remembered another big advantage of transfering from DKOK to DQOK: IIRC starting mages in DQ don't have lightning bolt, whereas transfered ones most probably/definitely will. And that spell is HUGELY useful in the underwater section early on.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Quite sure, yes. I lost my girdle of giant strength and my gauntlets of ogre power.

Well, that is one advantage of playing on the C64. The disadvantage is not being able to port characters on to the finale.

 

[Erebus]

Just remembered another big advantage of transfering from DKOK to DQOK: IIRC starting mages in DQ don't have lightning bolt, whereas transfered ones most probably/definitely will. And that spell is HUGELY useful in the underwater section early on.

I've played DQK several times before trying DKK and I'm fairly sure that newly created wizards in DQK have lightning bolt (which is indeed fairly useful in the underwater city).

I was thinking of making a DQK LP, but it turned out to be too much trouble. The simple act of taking screen captures with DOSBox is made difficult by Windows fucking Vista. And now that I've found the way to do it, I find myself with 320x200 screenshots that look like shit when I try to enlarge them.

 

[Jaesun]

I was thinking of making a DQK LP, but it turned out to be too much trouble. The simple act of taking screen captures with DOSBox is made difficult by Windows fucking Vista. And now that I've found the way to do it, I find myself with 320x200 screenshots that look like shit when I try to enlarge them.

http://download.cnet.com/Gadwin-PrintSc ... ag=mncol;1

I cannot recommend this screen capture program enough. It is excellent for taking in game screenshots.

 

[Jaesun]

Awesome, thanks for the tips Mantiis.

 

[Erebus]

Thanks for the tip, I'll give it a try.

 

[Crichton]

I've only played the 2nd one but I think the combat quirks are the same:

Needleguns are the best side-arm because they get the specialization bonus and quality bonus on every shot but it matters less for people with low spec-bonuses. They also eat ammo. I would have everyone carry two needleguns, a low quality one for dungeon crawling and a high quality one (Mercurian or whatever) for boss fights.

Rocket launchers and other AoE weapons are great, but each one only gets 10 shots until your next trip to the store so I liked to carry two of those as well but non-Desert-Runners would get weighed down so I'd leave the human medics with one but have two of the cat people carry three (!) so that it worked out to two for everyone.

Chaff is great for not getting blown to pieces by rocket launchers, the anti-laser stuff is generally not worth the trouble.

Don't forget to equip a weapon after you fire your rocket launcher, though it is hilarious to finish mooks off with your claws as a cat-person.

 

[zeitgeist]

I played this on the Sega Genesis

Same here. I remember being pretty impressed by the varied choice of character sprites at the time. I had no idea I was missing out on this much character customization:

Most versions of the game display the Adventuring view from the point of view of the party (i.e. the display is first-person), and have a simple text menu for spaceports.

The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis version of the game shows the Adventuring view as an isometric view of the area indicating the characters behind the party leader (i.e. the display is third-person), and uses the Adventuring view in spaceports. Most of the text is replaced by icons.

The available races and classes are also more limited on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis version. The player may only select from Human, Desert Runner, and Tinker as races, and may select only Warrior, Rocketjock, Medic, or Rogue as a character class. There are also significantly fewer skills and equipment types available to players as compared to the PC version.

I guess I'm going to have to replay it now, were there any significant differences similar to the above between the Amiga and PC versions?

 

[mondblut]

Krynn series: I usually play CoK and Dok on the C64 and then start a new game on Amiga or PC DQoK. Do items transfer over to DQoK?

Savage Frontier: Usually play the C64 version of Gateway. Do items transfer over to Treasures?

Buck Rogers: Usually play C64 version of Countdown. Do items transfer over to Matrix?

I am adamant Gateway to Treasure has item transfer, and pretty certain about the other two as well. They've dropped the "your party was drugged, robbed and buttfucked in between games again, LOL" schtick by about 1990.

Now, as an aside, I have seen some people ragging on the later goldbox games, especially Matrix Cubed and the Savage Frontier series. Why is this? I found them to be decent games overall.

They are probably butthurt over their favorite Apple ][ no longer being a platform of choice

 

[Sceptic]

I've played DQK several times before trying DKK and I'm fairly sure that newly created wizards in DQK have lightning bolt

Your memory's probably better than mine so I'll take your word for it.

Now, as an aside, I have seen some people ragging on the later goldbox games, especially Matrix Cubed and the Savage Frontier series. Why is this? I found them to be decent games overall.

They are probably butthurt over their favorite Apple ][ no longer being a platform of choice

Yes (though let's face it, the Apple II decline started around 1988)

Keep in mind that when we complain about them, we're complaining about them compared to the other Gold Box games. By any other standards they're good CRPG's. But SF isn't as good as the best of the initial series (really, all except Silver Blades; or, to pick campaigns of comparable level, POR and Curse) and Matrix isn't as good as Countdown. That's not to say they don't soundly beat most other CRPG's of course...

 

[octavius]

Now, as an aside, I have seen some people ragging on the later goldbox games, especially Matrix Cubed and the Savage Frontier series. Why is this? I found them to be decent games overall.

The random encounter design in the Savage Frontier games was a major

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Now, as an aside, I have seen some people ragging on the later goldbox games, especially Matrix Cubed and the Savage Frontier series. Why is this? I found them to be decent games overall.

The random encounter design in the Savage Frontier games was a major

I am listening...but whatever it is you have found, how did you find out about it/work it out?

Bear in mind I have never delved into the engine, nor have used any of the cluebooks which probably give some kind of information in this area away.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Most of what I had to say has been said before. I think Fowyr named the useless skills, but check with the manual of Matrix Cubed to see what skills are deemed worthless there (CtD and MC both had reference cards and/or readme files that told you which skills were never used in-game) so you know what skills to ignore.

It's been so long since I played Countdown to Doomsday, I can't even remember what my party setup was like. I remember monoswords being awesome and those goggles that rendered you immune to flash grenades being compulsory for the entire party at least part-way through the game.

 

[octavius]

Now, as an aside, I have seen some people ragging on the later goldbox games, especially Matrix Cubed and the Savage Frontier series. Why is this? I found them to be decent games overall.

The random encounter design in the Savage Frontier games was a major

I am listening...but whatever it is you have found, how did you find out about it/work it out?

Bear in mind I have never delved into the engine, nor have used any of the cluebooks which probably give some kind of information in this area away.

Shirley I have mentioned this several times?
1. There are no longer any Parlay option.
2. Within one area there are only one or two possible encounters, like for example in one aree all you meet is six guards, while in another all you meet is either two ankhegs or one hill giant. Been a long time since I played them so I don't remember the excact details, though.
3. The random encounters are endless.
4. Wilderness areas use the sames rules as dungeon encounters - one D6 chance every square of a random encounter. Even resting outdoors would usually result in a new random encounter, usually the very same which the party was recuperating from battling in the first place.

Compare this with the other GB games where there was a much smaller chance of wilderness encounters, there was a fixed number of random encounters in most dungeons and there was a much bigger variiety in the random encounters.

 

[Zomg]

Randoms (on a given map, not the wilderness) are usually still exhaustible in the SF games too, at least for one "visit" to that map. And the wilderness encounters drop drastically on roads and rivers so it's not just random encounter misery. I played partially through recently, am familiar with other GBs, and it didn't seem materially different in any systemic way.

 

[octavius]

Randoms (on a given map, not the wilderness) are usually still exhaustible in the SF games too, at least for one "visit" to that map. And the wilderness encounters drop drastically on roads and rivers so it's not just random encounter misery. I played partially through recently, am familiar with other GBs, and it didn't seem materially different in any systemic way.

Which versions did you play? I played the Amiga versions.
Maybe there are difference between versions?
Anyway, it was the wilderness areas that I was most disappointed with; the dungeons were not too bad, and the fixed encounters were generally good. The last encounter(s) in the first SF game is one of the all time greats, IMO.
But I gave up on the second SF game when I traveled from the first city to the second one by road, and was attacked by a huge clan of fire giants. I had to use most of my spells and probably some potions, scrolls and wands too, and my party was barely alive after the encounter. But every time I tried to rest I was attacked by the excact same party of fire giants I had just killed, so I gave up the game in disgust.

 

[bussinrounds]

What's the deal with this ? http://uaf.sourceforge.net/ Looks pretty fuckin cool.

 

[Jaesun]

What's the deal with this ? http://uaf.sourceforge.net/ Looks pretty fuckin cool.

I'ts still in "beta" but keep an eye on it.

Mechanics wise it's pretty dam solid, and IS very true to the good old Gold Box Game feel and experience. But again, it is still in beta and needs a bit more work.

I will definitely let the codex know if this is finally ready for prime time and is a MUST PLAY. I'm currently modding a campaign for it (for a beginning level party) for it now.